It feels like forever since we’ve seen the national team in action but the KNT is finally back! In both the men’s and women’s teams!

Our first bit of news is the postponement of the U17 Suwon Cup due to the darn MERS outbreak in Korea. It was supposed to be a 4 team tournament comprised of us, the US, Nigeria, and Brazil. It was also supposed to feature Choi Jin Chul’s men (teens?), which includes Jang Gyeol Hee and Lee Seung Woo. I was really looking forward to seeing these guys again (Lee has been in Korea since the U18 Suwon Challenge Cup in April/May training for the U17 edition) but we’re gonna have to wait until either August or September.

Meanwhile, here’s a hattrick LSW scored for Myungji University right after the U18 Suwon Cup (he’s training with their team to up his fitness). But for some reason his first goal won’t load so I could only add a URL

Our Tavern podcasts will return soon! With no major events other than the ongoing K League and the KPA, there really wasn’t too much to talk about. Well, that was a lie – there’s a lot to talk about this K League season as it has been certainly very interesting with regard to player performances and potential KNT candidates. Unfortunately, Jeonbuk are pretty much running away with the league already just like Chelsea did this EPL season.

There could’ve been a podcast for the U18 Suwon Cup but there really weren’t many talking points to take out of that aside from quite a handful of promising players. IMO it wasn’t Lee Seung Woo who stood out vs. Uruguay, Belgium, and France, but a couple other offensive players who performed really well vs. Uruguay and Belgium but just like everyone else kinda went quiet vs. France.

Anyway, back to the next podcast: what will we be covering? The FIFA Women’s World Cup of course! Team Korea kicks off vs tournament favorites Brazil (is favorite the right word here? I guess THE favorite would be USA/Japan/Germany but right behind them in the women’s game is Brazil/France/England IIRC) before moving onto Spain and Costa Rica who we should be looking to beat. Perhaps against Brazil we should play like we did vs. USA, secure at least a draw, then go into the rest full strength. IDK, we’ll see what happens.

The Tavern will also provide posts on the WWC the same way we did for Brazil 2014: a preview the day before, a game recap the day of, and player ratings / analysis / thoughts sometime before the next preview.

Around the same time as the Women’s WC will be… the WCQ! We have a friendly with the UAE before moving on to face Myanmar as an official WCQ. This will definitely be covered, potentially as a second podcast altogether to avoid a super long 1.5 hr podcast. While Myanmar should be EZ, for some reason I feel strangely nervous vs. UAE. Hong Jeong Ho and whoever’s in DM + CB need to be on their toes vs. Omar Abdulrahman.

For those of you following the Tavern Twitter account, Roy has retweeted what Jae, Tim, and I think about the callups – they were … meh. Some of the most in form players in the league like Hwang Eui Jo, Son Jun Ho, Kim Seung Dae, Kwon Sun Tae, Yang Dong Hyun, etc. were excluded at the expense of players like Lee Yong Jae, Han Kook Young, Kim Chang Soo (who I don’t think is even playing regularly, and JSR). However, Stielike did manage to callup a number of promising / on form K League stars like Lim Chae Min (Seongnam CB), Kang Soo Il (only the second half Korean ever to play for the KNT, if he plays that is), and Yeom Ki Hun (who honestly deserves the callup more than any other player on the roster, he’s been on FIRE this season).

31 Comments

What are your opinions about Park Chu Young?
Honestly, I think it was right Stielike did not call him up for the UAE/Myanmar matches but do any of you see hope in him for the future? He scored 2 goals for FC Seoul so far. And congrats to Yeom and Kang Soo Il!

I was the Tavern’s #1 defender of PJY and I often had arguments with Jae about it lol, saying “an out of form PJY is surely better than in form ___” because he hadn’t played right before the 2012 Olympics but he played fine …. but boy was I wrong

Nowadays he’s doing better and showed us that his freekick sense is still alive but he’s still not the same player he used to be and it’ll take time for him to come back to the NT

I’m not Jinseok, but I do write here, so I’ll give my quick two cents:

I think the utility of Lee Junghyub is that he offers (in reduced terms) what Kim Shinwook and Lee Keunho did respectively – height and work rate. It maybe over-simplifying things but I don’t think it’s too far from the truth (though I’d like to hear what the other writers think of that comparison). I prefer him over Park Chuyoung right now though, because Park is nowhere near form while LJH just scored a hat trick for Sangju and from what I gather is putting in good performances. Plus he’s got potential, whearas for Park, I think I also have to admit PCY’s glory days are long gone.

PCY was at his peak in 2010 and it’s been downhill for him. I don’t see him gaining that momentum and skill. Is that retard Stielike and his dumbass coaches seriously calling up LYJ? Seriously a player from J2? These coaches lost their common sense somewhere. Where is Suk? Call up Lee Jong Ho. Also JSR? Call up Jeonbuk’s GK…

JDW was supposed to be our no.9 and he’s let us fans all down. Someone still claims he has faith in him because of the 2012 goal against GB…seriously dude it’s been 3 years. Give it a rest. This guy is worse than PCY. He’s had all the opportunity at BVB and Augsburg and he gets injured doing fuck all.

Park’s problem (broadly speaking) is that if he isn’t scoring goals then he really isn’t doing anything. He doesn’t create space for others, he doesn’t create opportunities (passing) for others. He doesn’t really press defenders when the team doesn’t have the ball. Those faults can be overlooked when he’s scoring, but when he’s not . . .

It was right not to call him up now, but if he can score a few more for Seoul over the coming weeks I could see him possibly making the East Asian Cup roster. If he does well there, then maybe a return to the full NT would be possible.

This is the same player who couldn’t make it in the French 3rd division let alone the 2nd division. It’s nothing personal but when we have better options at the FW position, why is this guy getting called up? It’s already annoying to see a bunch of Jjanke league and camel league players getting called up.

I hope the team plays terribly just to prove the point that these call ups were seriously retarded. HKY is fucking terrible too. Mofo can’t do shit but slide tackle like a retard. He does nothing at all in the offensive end. And yet again he’s called up as always.

Look, this is probably not true, but I was thinking whether the politics of the KFA would get into the selection of LYJ. After all, they’ve spent a lot on him to be an investment for the future in terms of getting him trained in Europe, and in Div.2 French League he consistently played for Nantes as an 18 year old. Imagine spending thousands on a player who was supposed to be a hope for the country but now he doesn’t seem to be up to scratch. I could understand the KFA pressuring Stielike to give him more chances until he either totally proves he is shit, or he proves that he is worthy.
Just a thought!

The call up is really baffling. I’d rather see LDG and KSW. At least KSW can use his height, although he sucks at everything else. I’m not impressed by LJH either. I hope PCY can regain his form because he’s probably still our best striker when in-form.

Can someone please explain to me why players like Lee Yong Jae and Lee Ki je would choose to play in J2 and A-League over their own respective leagues (K League).
One isnt even top division, and the other is definitely not as high standard as K league, even though they did win a AFC, the level is subpar at best.
Lee Ki-Je also had a good outlook and even trialled with Augsburg.
Would it be salary? playing conditions? club hierarchy?

Wow, the hate on Lee Yong-Jae is ridiculous. What has he done to deserve all this hate? Is he really hated for 3 to 4 games he played for KNT U-23 in Asian Games? What about his U-17 days? Based on stats, he did well. He hardly featured for U-20s..

Yes, Lee Yong Jae did not have good career in Europe. But remember, he moved to France/Europe at a young age. Probably a wrong move & he should have stayed home but he took his chance. Remember, it’s extremely difficult to succeed in Europe & adaptation isn’t easy for such young lad. He returned to Asia & found a stable environment to improve his game (of which, he undoubtedly did imo).

I, unlike many of you… am happy Lee Yong-Jae is getting his chance with KNT senior team. Korea isn’t flushed with talented FWs & in K-league, managers opt to play foreign target FWs. From an extremely limited pool of FWs to choose from, Lee Yong-Jae (even at J2 lvl) was the most in-form target FW til recently. Is it really necessary to kill him off before he plays even a second for Korea senior team?

Btw, look at Kim Shin-Wook’s highlights. K-league made him look GOOD (look at how open he is majority of the goals he scored.. all with his head without even jumping. how can the tallest player in the league be that open??). Did I mention he has 3 goals out of 29 caps in 5 yr span for Korea?

Well we all know KSW is the much better players, the AG pretty much proved that
LYJ is on form so his callup is justified yes, but given the form of many other players like Hwang EJ Joo MK and hell even Yang DH.. calling up a player who has constantly NOT done well for the youth teams doesn’t seem like the right choice imo

Hwang EJ wasn’t that in form til he scored against Jeonbuk. He’s a battler who misses as often as Lee Yong-Jae.

Btw, how was LYJ consistently bad in youth teams? Honest question. He did well with U-17 it seems. Not much app in U-20, and only 4 games in Asian Games for U-23. If he wasn’t for him, U-23 doesn’t get military exemption.

Also, I disagree on KSW being a better player. For me, he is worthless & absolute shit except being tall. Judging players based on youth teams/games is one of the worst sin imo. Otherwise, Park Joo-Ho (player you all hated), Kim Jin-Hyeon (again, player you all hated til recently) and etc should never play for Korea while Hwang Hee-Chan/Baek Sung-Dong should be starting player for Korea atm.

Nobody is hating on LYJ. They’re just baffled that a J2 player got called up against the likes of SHJ. It’s obvious he couldn’t handle the 2nd division of France, let alone the 3rd. It’s not because he hated the food or because he couldn’t speak the language well. He just wasn’t good enough obviously. Now he’s landed himself a spot in a J2 team. It’s one thing to be doing well in J1. He’s been terrible since first watching him in the U-20 cup and again reaffirmed my opinions after watching the Asian Games.

KSW is also a terrible striker through and through. He’s a nice decoy to have during ppung chuku but he lacks any kind of ball control and has no ability whatsoever to create a shot on his own. For a guy of his height and stature, he’s deceivingly weak.

I wish I saw the game. If you can go simply on highlights, PCY looked better overall than in the first few games back for Seoul – at least it seemed he was involved a lot. I have hope that his form is returning.

Meanwhile Scottish blogger Stephen Waddell mentioned Joo Min-Kyu should’ve got a look. He’s been hot for Seoul E-Land, scored his 2nd hat trick in a row (I think?) well he’s been scoring a lot is the point. If Stielike is willing to look at K2 players – Joo presents a very strong case by that goal scoring metric.

Yeah no about Joo Min-kyu. Stielike rolled the dice with Lee Jung-hyub, it worked. We don’t need another Challenge striker who’s on good form but literally has no youth experience. Let’s actually call up players who have a chance of going/taking us to 2018 or being in that general picture.

K League Classic

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P

1

Jeonbuk Motors

77

2

Gyeongnam

58

3

Ulsan

56

4

Suwon Bluewings

49

5

Pohang Steelers

47

6

Jeju United

44

7

Gangwon

39

8

Daegu

39

9

Seoul

35

10

Sangju Sangmu

33

11

Jeonnam Dragons

32

12

Incheon United

30

Most recent soccer data here. The system is currently retrieving statistics from data feed.

November 11, 2018

Seoul

3 - 2

Jeonnam Dragons

Daegu

0 - 0

Sangju Sangmu

November 10, 2018

Gyeongnam

1 - 2

Pohang Steelers

Jeju United

0 - 0

Jeonbuk Motors

Suwon Bluewings

3 - 3

Ulsan

Gangwon

2 - 3

Incheon United

English Premier League

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Manchester City

32

2

Liverpool

30

3

Chelsea

28

4

Tottenham Hotspur

27

5

Arsenal

24

6

AFC Bournemouth

20

7

Watford

20

8

Manchester United

20

9

Everton

19

10

Leicester City

17

11

Wolverhampton Wanderers

16

12

Brighton & Hov…

14

13

West Ham United

12

14

Newcastle United

9

15

Burnley

9

16

Crystal Palace

8

17

Southampton

8

18

Cardiff City

8

19

Huddersfield Town

7

20

Fulham

5

Hwang Heechan

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1

Red Bull Salzburg

38

Bundesliga

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Borussia Dortmund

27

2

Borussia Mönchengladbach

23

3

RB Leipzig

22

4

Eintracht Frankfurt

20

5

Bayern München

20

6

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

19

7

Werder Bremen

17

8

Hertha BSC

16

9

1. FSV Mainz 05

15

10

Augsburg 1907

13

11

SC Freiburg

13

12

Wolfsburg

12

13

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

11

14

Schalke 04

10

15

Nürnberg

10

16

Hannover 96

9

17

Fortuna Düsseldorf

8

18

Stuttgart

8

Kwon Changhoon

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18

Dijon

11

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The Tavern of the Taeguk Warriors is an online community of Korean football/soccer supporters. We bring you news, analysis and opinion in English about Korean players abroad, youth players and the K League.